A chef from “the best restaurant in the world” has taken charge at Clooney in Freeman’s Bay. Good news? Some of the local critics have raved, but, surprisingly, not all of them. So how good is this Jacob Kear really? And how good has he made the restaurant, and how much would you pay anyway? … Read more
The minister of finance just announced a multi-billion dollar spend up – and Auckland should be very worried. Simon Wilson explains how the government’s traffic plans are badly stuck. Congestion for motorists on Onewa Rd isn’t any better than it ever was, Cr Richard Hills told his colleagues on the Auckland Council today. Despite all … Read more
Auckland Transport wants a rail line from the CBD to the airport. Council does too. So why does a start date seem further away than ever? Simon Wilson examines what’s gone wrong and how to make it right in the dispute over rail to the airport. Light rail is trams and heavy rail is trains … Read more
Here’s a quick and easy and inexpensive way we can all get more excited about Auckland. Change the names of things! No really – Simon Wilson is serious about this. There’s free burgers or something if you can answer all five of these quick questions: What’s the CRL? What’s the LTP? What about the UP? … Read more
A new initiative to teach yoga and mindfulness to troubled youth is effecting remarkable change. Don Rowe visits with Atawhai, a new initiative from Kristina Cavit and The Kindness Institute, ahead of their inaugural end-of-programme event this Sunday. In a small room off the Point Chevalier Community Centre in Auckland, miracles are taking place. One … Read more
Hoping for more green space in the city centre? Auckland Transport has other plans, and there are just three days left to tell them what you think. Remember the City Centre Masterplan? Possible not, at least not unless you’re a policy wonk working for (or possibly against) the council. But it was a good thing, … Read more
An exhibition and auction about to hit the streets of downtown Auckland aims to raise awareness – and funds – for asylum seekers in desperate need, writes Keith Locke. Close to 90 artists, each with a wooden picture frame. A theme: compassion for asylum seekers. And a venue: the shop windows of downtown Auckland, on … Read more
Andrew Little wants Phil Goff close to him in cabinet, he has revealed in an interview with The Spinoff. Not actually in cabinet, but as an important part of Wellington’s decision-making processes about Auckland. If the Labour Party gets to form the next government, Auckland can expect some big changes. During an in-depth interview with … Read more
A razor gang at the Auckland Council led to yesterday’s announcement that the city’s libraries are cutting 74 members of staff. Former Auckland librarian Ethan Sills reports. Libraries are magical institutions. It can feel unreal that they still exist, given how fantastical the idea of them seems. Buildings where you can go and borrow books … Read more
Is the daily anti-abortion vigil for Lent a peaceful, prayer-focused protest, or is it more intimidating than that? Alex Braae reports. Every day when staff from the Auckland Medical Aid Centre go to work they are stared at. Across the road a rotating group of people wait for them in the morning and they’re still … Read more
Just when you thought transport planning in Auckland was beyond all hope, here’s a plan to save us all. Or something close to it. Welcome to the Congestion Free Network, version 2.0. Do you have to be a nerdy traffic analyst to fall in love with a map? Probably. I like to think I’m not … Read more
The latest skirmish in an epic battle between two Waihekes took place at Matiatia ferry terminal this morning, writes Duncan Greive. “If they try and do a swifty we’re waiting,” says Susi Newborn, the leader of a protest on a cool, bright morning at the Matiatia ferry terminal on Waiheke. ‘They’ are Fullers, operators of … Read more
The government is about to push through a plan to build the most expensive road in New Zealand history – without declaring an up-to-date business case or providing any good evidence of the need. Simon Wilson asks why it wants to waste so much of our money. Boy did it rain last week. In that … Read more
What is typhoid? How do you catch it? And while we’re at it, why have health authorities failed so miserably at communicating with the public over the outbreak? A woman in Auckland died of typhoid last week and no one was told about it until after the funeral days later. Neither her family nor visiting … Read more
When you crunch the numbers on Auckland’s housing crisis, the result is clear: we’re still going backwards. So why aren’t we changing our approach? Leonie Freeman thinks she has a solution. Even before we dial up the numbers, it’s clear we are in an uncomfortable space. Changing policies, high level cluelessness, a demand-supply failure and … Read more
Look at us Kiwis, a bunch of risk-taking, rule-bending, fresh-thinking suck-it-and-see adventurers, right? Who wouldn’t want to be one? So if we really do think that’s who we are, how come our transport planning isn’t keeping up with the ideas now transforming the cities of the world? Not radical ideas, just orthodox planning ideas. Like: … Read more
The first manifesto of the election has been declared and it doesn’t even belong to a political party. ‘Manifesto 2017: What the next New Zealand government should do’ is the work of think tank the New Zealand Initiative. Simon Wilson, worried as ever about Auckland, searches for some goodness within. They’ve got well organised minds … Read more
The Spinoff Auckland editor Simon Wilson loathed Wednesday night’s Rufus Wainwright concert. But onwards: this weekend at the Auckland Arts Festival looks to be full of wonders. There was a moment about halfway through Rufus Wainwright’s vainglorious “symphonic visual concert” Prima Donna (a concert version of his opera) when I thought the diva might be … Read more
Mayor Phil Goff is likely to lose the vote at council for one of his signature policies: the “bed tax that isn’t a bed tax”, otherwise known as the targeted accommodation rate he wants to charge hotels and motels. It will be embarrassing for him and, far worse, it’ll put a $30 million hole in his … Read more
Finding a safe, secure rental is hard for anyone of limited means in 2017. But the ugly truth is that it is often that much harder for Pasifika and Māori. Emmaline Matagi tells the stories of three such whānau, whose names have been changed to protect them against further discrimination. The Auckland housing crisis has so many … Read more
Right now at the Civic, the audience screams are spiking right off the charts. And with good reason: the Auckland Arts Festival show Horror is scary good, says Alex Casey. I’ll admit it. I once hit a werewolf over the head with my handbag. In my defence, he did lunge at me in a haunted house … Read more
As summer drops away with the leaves a family in West Auckland prepares to endure another winter in substandard government housing, in a place that feels far from a home. Don Rowe visits and hears their story. “We drove past where our old house was the other day and they’ve built a new one. My … Read more
And there’s more to come. With 10 days still to run, Simon Wilson takes stock of the Auckland Arts Festival. The rain came down and you had to be a hardy soul (and living in an unflooded house), not to stay home. But then it stopped and look at this weather now – and the … Read more
National and Labour might deny it, but they have a surprising amount in common on housing. But they also have some big differences, and neither of them seems to really understand what to do about state housing. Why not? Both parties pledge to build more affordable homes, expand the social housing stock and shelter more … Read more
If you see only one show in the Auckland Arts Festival, says Simon Wilson, make it The Encounter. Its short run starts tonight. Every arts festival has a special show. It bedazzles, but that’s not all. It jolts your senses and your sensibility, and has such a depth of theme and strength of creative expression … Read more
With a water shortage threatened for Auckland, we invited Phil Goff to give us some tips on how to take a short shower. He declined! And then we discovered this… When I was young and devil-may-care I used to ride a motorcycle with the wind in my hair, because that’s how we rocked back then, … Read more
In the Arts Festival play Cellfish a drama teacher invites a bunch of prisoners to do a Shakespeare class – and it’s not why you think, says Simon Wilson. The rain came down and then it stopped and nothing got cancelled. Five shows opened in the Auckland Arts Festival on Wednesday and this one, Cellfish, … Read more
How come there’s still no publicly available business case for the government’s next big transport priority in Auckland – the East-West expressway that will cut Onehunga off from the foreshore? Simon Wilson reports from Council. Mayor Phil Goff took the stairs to the meeting room on the top floor of the town hall two at … Read more
The War for Auckland was the most exciting thing we’ve ever done, and we hated shutting it down. Now, with the support of Heart of the City, we’re launching a new full-time section dedicated to Auckland. Former Metro editor Simon Wilson, who has joined us as editor of The Spinoff Auckland, nails up his colours. … Read more